Avidyne vs. Garmin - Fight!

I spent some time today learning about the latest offerings from Avidyne in their glass panel products. I have wondered for a while what they might do to combat the powerhouse that is Garmin. Garmin has quickly made in-roads with their G1000, even displacing Avidyne in what I consider Avidyne's flagship deployment platform - the Cirrus SR22.

Currently, if you want to give Cirrus as much money as possible for an SR22 you will get a Garmin, not an Avidyne. Additionally, even when you do buy an Avidyne-equipped airplane Garmin STILL makes money - the Avidyne is always installed with Garmin radios and GPS units. I think Avidyne aims to fix that with their new FMS900w system.

This new system replaces the Garmin radios in the installation with a keyboard equipped "remote pad" for entering waypoints, freqs, etc. It even has a QWERTY keyboard - imagine that! The system also includes updated main displays. These now support synthetic vision (much like you'd see in a flight sim) and night vision cameras.

They also redesigned the UI - one of the big places Avidyne sets itself apart from Garmin. Avidyne actually cares about ease-of-use which is so critical for an in-flight software system. This is evident in the new setup with - just like their old system - a near-total lack of sub-menus and other "hidden" options. This means less time fumbling through the "pilot's guide" in-flight and less brain power devoted to simply operating your gear.

They also re-thought the "reversionary" mode to deal with a failed display. They re-thought it by getting rid of it completely. You simply configure each screen the way you want it - turn the MFD into the PFD with a button press. Want to see the engine instruments on the PFD for a moment - press a button. This means that if you are operating with a failed screen you can still access all capabilities, not just some of them as in the G1000.

The only place I still see Avidyne behind the curve is in the autopilot department. I've yet to see a GA autopilot that bests the Garmin GFC 700 (GFC 700 video).

Of course, to catch-up with Garmin they need to get this system out into the wild - and in large numbers. That is probably a much tougher chore than the entire tech development side of the equation.

Here's a quick rundown of the new Avidyne:

Comments

Hamish said…
Much as I would probably like the Avidyne in real life, the problem it faces is that the G1000 is everywhere: I can fly 172's, 182's, Cirruses, and lord knows what with almost identical G1000 installations (and I do). As irritating as it might sometimes be, the G1000's become common currency in smaller GA planes, and threatens to become standard: if given a choice between G1000 and Avidyne equipped rentals, I'll probably always go for the familiar...
January 5, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Unknown said…
Well I guess it's game on just as you wanted/predicted. Avidyne's announced their autopilot. On their website, it looks like they have a division to do this stuff.
April 17, 2009 at 6:35 PM
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